


Dear...

by Quinless



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Adventure, Angst, Good Guy Gaster, Into Game, Multi, No Romance, No Smut, Other, Platonic Relationships, Reader Insert, Reader has some anxiety and depression, Self Insert, Slow Build, gender neutral frisk, gender neutral reader
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-28
Updated: 2018-04-23
Packaged: 2018-11-06 02:55:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,934
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11027136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quinless/pseuds/Quinless
Summary: You played it over and over with no real objective. You did the same thing every time. Sometimes, you felt bad for resetting. Though, that didn’t stop you; it was just a game after all.But what you didn’t know, was that someone was getting tired of it.





	1. Ch. 1

**Author's Note:**

> You played it over and over with no real objective. You did the same thing every time. Sometimes, you felt bad for resetting. Though, that didn’t stop you; it was just a game after all.
> 
> But what you didn’t know, was that someone was getting tired of it.
> 
> -
> 
> KEY:  
> (Y/F/N) = Your Friend's Name  
> (Y/N) = Your Name  
> (Y/L/N) = Your Last Name
> 
> -
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own Undertale. I only own the ideas, plot, and reader actions that are placed into this story.
> 
> Enjoy!

It’d been a long day at school. Not that anything happened to upset you, it’d just been… well, long. Quite the opposite, really. The day had been uneventful albeit its sluggish pace. Put simply, you were glad it was finally the weekend. As soon as you’d gotten home, you and your friend had stalked quietly to your room and hopped on your bed with laptops in laps. 

Your initial intentions were to finish an English paper that was due in a few days, but that’s not what you opened once your screen had appeared. After that, all your actions had been absent minded. It was as if your hands had a mind of their own for the moment as they guided the trackpad to the little pixelated heart amongst the many program icons. Maybe it was muscle memory?

“Again?”

You blinked, raising your gaze away from your laptop to your friend that laid next to you on your bed.

“Yeah, I guess.” Was your response.

The first time you’d finished the game, it left a gaping hole in your chest. A ridiculous reaction to the ending of a game, but there was no other way to put it. You couldn’t exactly describe it in one way, either. Why did you play it over and over? To fill the hole, you thought. What exactly was the hole? That’s what confused you. But, that just meant it was a good game, right?

“This is your, what,” They mused with a raised eyebrow, “Eight millionth time playing it? You know, I don’t think that’s healthy.”

“It’s only my _twelfth_ time playing it, (Y/F/N),” You sighed, “And there’s no harm done. I’ve already done most of my homework. And like you said before, it’s just a game.”

They shrugged, as if to say ‘whatever you say, bud’ and went back to typing their own paper.

That made you frown, but you simply turned your gaze back to the apparent loading game. You didn't mean to double click and open the game. It just.... happened, though not that you really minded. You wouldn't mind another run through. You were planning on doing it again sooner or later.

The first time you had reset the game, you felt a tad bit guilty for taking away the pixelated characters happy ending. In fact, you still did whenever you reset the game. Once you'd expressed that feeling to (Y/F/N), they simply reminded you that the game and it's characters weren't real. There was no real harm done. That reminder eased your guilt, but it still remained at the back of your mind every time you played. However, that didn't stop you from playing it over and over.

Most people online reset to explore the alternate ending; the murderous one. You couldn't bring yourself to, even with your friends erging. You’d grown far too attached to all the characters to hurt them. Even if they weren’t real, they definitely had a place in your heart. Instead, you constantly reset the game to do the exact same thing over and over again. Perhaps you relished the feeling of SAVEing everyone. Yes, definitely so.

The music lightly drifted from your laptop's speaker and your thoughts were brought back to reality (well, for the most part). The intro began, but you opted to let it play out. You usually skipped it but the reminiscence was nice.

**Long ago, to races rule over Earth: Monsters and Humans.**

**One day, war broke out between the two races.**

**After a long battle, the humans were victorious.**

**They sealed the monsters underground with a magic spell.**

**Many years later. . .**

**  
EBOTT**

**201X**  

 **  
Legends say those who climb the mountain never return.**  

 

**U N D E R T A L E**

 

You hummed along to the music, having long since memorized the tune. Memories of your first run through crept to you and a feeling of sad nostalgia reached you.  

When you had stumbled upon the game, you weren’t too sure about it. From what you’d seen online about Undertale, it didn’t seem to be your sort of thing. You were going to ignore it. But, somehow, no matter what you did, fanart of all the characters found its way onto all your social medias. The designs were rather intriguing and you actually drew them a few times before you finally gave in to playing it.

As of yet, that was one of the best decisions you ever made.

You licked your lips unsurely as you stared at the option you’d chosen many times before.

**TRUE RESET**

Your finger hovered over the enter key. Did you really want to do this again? It’d been a month since you last reset. Perhaps your friend was right. Maybe you’ve played it too many times. You couldn’t keep doing this forever.

But one more time wouldn’t hurt, would it?

After all, it was just a game.

And you had all the time in the world right now.


	2. Ch. 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You didn't actually have all the time in the world like you'd thought before; school had kept your thoughts so far from Undertale that you barely remember you had reset. But now, it's the beginning of Spreing Break. And in your moment of relaxation, you remember it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CHAPTER KEY:  
> (Y/E/N) = Your eye color
> 
> -
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own Undertale. I only own the ideas, plot, and reader actions that are placed into this story. Thanks so much to my friend for reading over and editing! 
> 
> Enjoy!

Your initial statement to having ‘ _all the time in the world_ ’ to play again had been rather... _wrong_. Your high school graduation was creeping up on you, and with that, college applications. So despite having started the reset, you’d only made it as far as reaching Toriel’s house. You’d hardly had time to continue (much to your chagrin).

 

To add, this run felt different, but as far as you could tell, nothing _was_ different. You chalked it up to the feeling being in relation what was going on in your life right now. But even then, that didn’t feel right. There was just _something_ about this run that had the hairs on your neck standing; like an itching anticipation. It wasn’t particularly daunting but it… had your curiosity captured.

 

You wondered if that feeling was really just you _hoping_ and _wanting_ this run to be different (so you could be in awe once again). You debated this internally but somehow… you knew it wasn't that. Though, that was what you were going to take it as for now. Anything else just seemed entirely preposterous.

 

School had kept you quite busy, up until now. All the class projects, long winded assignments, and exams were finally put on a brief pause for Spring Break. For that, you were entirely grateful.

 

A long sigh escapes you as you throw yourself onto your bed, your bag having been thrown to some corner of the room.

 

Undertale had been quite far from your mind. It wasn’t completely gone, only placed in the back burner while your work and anxieties took hold as the end of high school neared. Now you finally had a moment (or a week, really) to breathe. It actually didn't feel natural to simply lay there all evening, even _if_ that had been what you daydreamed about these past few weeks. Your chest held an unsettling anxiety of ‘ _you need to be doing something._ ’

 

(Y/E/C) eyes scanned over your room for something to do. Books? Hm… no, you’d already read all your books and you weren't interested in rereading. Sketchbook? You make a face at that-- you were currently in an art block. It also didn't help that you didn't have the attention span for anatomy right now. Phone? No, all of your friends were on family vacations… and you'd already watched all your YouTube subscriptions.

 

Then you spot your laptop resting on your desk. This causes you to sit up with an odd epiphany.

 

You stare at it almost blankly.

 

Undertale.

 

That's right. You'd started yet another run back in the fall. How could you forget? Had you _actually_ forgotten? Did you _will_ yourself to forget because of that odd feeling that returned, crawling up your back?

You decide to discard that thought; in all your stress, it seemed that over analyzing things came as a second nature.

 

After considering it for a few moments more, you sluggishly pulled yourself from the bed (though not before wrapping your in a cocoon of blankets) and plopped into the desk chair.

 

This is what you needed. A break from reality. A game. A refresh. A _reset_.

 

And of course it doesn't take you long to get the familiar game up and running. It was a matter of seconds before the familiar intro tune filled your ears. It rang soothingly in contrast to all the stress you’d been experience previously. It made you smile.

 

 _Here we go_ you think to yourself, that old spark of excitement growing in your stomach.

 

Once you resume the game, you find Frisk’s character model at the save point sparkle outside Toriel’s house. Just as you’d left it and just as you’d remembered it.

 

 _You ignored the odd feeling that this surprises you_.

 

Then you make your way up the steps, fingers tapping at an even pace against the the arrow keys. You enjoyed the view and the nostalgia that rushed through you as you passed through her home. It was lovely, really. Not just the home, but the goat woman herself. You enjoyed the little moments of “normality” with her. Even if she was just a product of coding and pixels, you always felt safe and warm when your character was with her. It was like you felt like she _actually_ cared about you and wanted to protect you. Toriel was such a wonderful monster-being.

 

You’d always yearned to have someone like her in your life.

 

Who knows? Maybe one day you would. That would be nice.

 

And yet, despite the happy nostalgia of going through her home in the ruins, you sped through the parts as best you could. You always knew what would come at the end of wandering about the corridors. Sometimes you would be tempted to just… stay there. After all, you were the type of person But you never did-- how else would you progress in the game?

  


The fight with her wasn’t particularly a part you liked to go through. Your heart still ached when you pushed through the battle with Toriel. She only wanted Frisk’s safety because she knew what was out there. And yet, to the best of her knowledge, they ignorantly only persisted because they desperately wanted to go home and believed nothing would hurt them.

 

**However, when you leave… please do not come back. I hope you understand.**

 

But again, like every run after the first, you sped through it with a mental apology to her.

 

**Goodbye, my child.**

 

And of course as you quickly pushed Frisk to leave the ruins and go into the snowy woods, you’re prepared to meet Sans. You’d have to be a fool to still be scared or surprised by the broken twig that appears through the brush of trees behind you as you walked.

 

It made you smile a little.

 

This part, you wouldn’t skip over.

 

The familiarity you had still remained as the moments went on. You felt ready.

 

But oddly enough, even being fully prepared, the first black outline of Sans’s shape caused you to jump.

 

You laughed at yourself, muttering only, “Guess that old bag of bones’s still got it, huh?”

 

There’s a pressure that builds in your chest as the music grows louder (could you even call it music?). It increased more so as the noise of the skeleton’s trudging footsteps in the snow neared Frish along with his _actual_ shadowed self.

 

Once he’s behind the child, you don’t hesitate to tap the spacebar.

 

There was an oddly long pause between your tap and the usual text box appearing. You almost reached to restart your laptop before it finally popped onto your screen.

 

**H u m a n.**

 

Huh. The words didn’t tremble like that before, did they?

 

_No they didn’t._

 

Tap.

 

**W h y  d o  y o u  k e e p  d o i n g  t h i s  ?  D o  y o u  t h i n k  t h i s  i s  f u n n y  ?**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you couldn't tell, my goal for finishing this fanfic by August 2017 was completely obliterated lol. I've been buried in my uni work and a lot of real life stuff but, alas, I'm back and here with two chapters! The next one to be published was actually originally a part of this one too but I decided it'd be more... dramatic if I split them :P
> 
> As always, feel free to review!


	3. Ch. 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Your playthrough has takes unexpected turns and ends abruptly. 
> 
> Sort of.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CHAPTER KEY:  
> (Y/N) = Your chosen / preferred name.
> 
> -
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own Undertale. I only own the ideas, plot, and reader actions that are placed into this story. Thanks so much to my friend for reading over and editing!
> 
> Enjoy!

That was certainly different. _Very_ different. By now you've memorized most of the lines Sans has ever said. And that wasn't one of them. He never spoke with true malice the first time he meets Frisk, even with his character base being built to have familiarity with your sprite after resets. It made the hairs on the back of your neck stand in anticipation, paranoia, and… excitement.

After all, it was something new in this repetitive gameplay of Undertale. New and possibly changing. You briefly speculated this new dialogue being a part of an update to the game. Maybe Toby Fox and his writers decided to spice things up a little. That was the only logical possibility, right?

 _You decided to ignore the thought that tells you that there should have been a patch before you booted up the game. You wanted whatever was coming_.

“I’m thinking about this too hard,” you mutter to yourself, eyes tracing over the features of the pixelated game, “It’s just a game.”

With that, your actions resume. Fingers tap briefly on the spacebar to continue the dialogue. Instead of having more to say, it gives you a series of underscores to type through.

The game wanted you to answer for yourself.

Your heart skipped a beat in surprise; again, another unheard of option in the game (you'd have to search through Tumblr and Twitter for information later). But instead of letting your mind get the best of you like moments before, you decided to go with the flow.

Fingers fly across the keyboard, you typed: **It’s not funny. It's just fun. I like to be a part of things like this.**

You submitted the text without allowing yourself the hesitance your conscience begged for.

It took a moment for the game to register your response. It was almost as if it was weighing the validity in your answer. You expected for the game to continue without much to notice after that. At this point, the idea that this might be a strategy for the creator to receive feedback on the game.

 _You ignored the voice telling you that it made no sense, as there was no way for them to receive your personal game files_.

You're about to press the spacebar again in your impatience when Sans’s sprite changes position to be facing frontwards. To be facing _you._ In all its abruptness his actions causes you to jump a bit.

There's an odd feeling to this. But again you don't want to overthink this. In fact, you didn't want to overthink at all. This was your _spring fucking break_. You could put the paranoia to use on your next college entrance exam.

Instead, you just wondered if it was a glitch in the game. The text box finally appears once again with the comic sans dialogue.

**Fun, huh, Y/N?**

New. It was all new. You're caught up in all it's newness and your own eagerness; you tap the button again.

_You were ignorant to remember that you had used your real name only in your first run. This run you had used the name of one of your OCs. You were also ignorant to realizing that they never address the player as the name they chose in the beginning._

But instead of more comic sans, the text box turns cracked much like when Asgore breaks your MERCY button.

_New._

Without warning a horrible noise began to wail from your speakers, the sound being one of a blue screened computer revealing there is an ERROR.

You winced at volume of it; had you really had the sound that loud? Shocked and panicked by the sudden noise, you slammed your finger on _reduce volume_ key but to no avail. It was wailing as loud as can be. Maybe the only way to stop it was to move on with the game.

In order to rid yourself of the painfuls screeching you began to reach to press the bar again in a futile attempt to get rid of the noise only to be stopped. The box shatters even more. And then more. And then _more_ \-- until the box is in little bits in pieces.

You hadn’t even _touched_ a button.

Your heart began to race and a bile of confusion and fear pools in your stomach. This doesn't make any sense. This supplies nothing to the original storyline of the game. What were the game developers thinking?

_You were surprised your parents didn’t come bursting in. Couldn’t they hear the painful noise?_

Then your laptops seems to do the impossible. The screen _cracks_ in the center in almost a perfect mimicry of the text box.

Your jaw dropped, eyes fixated on the crack. How is that possible? Did the game just overload your poor laptop to the point of practically self destructing? Was that even possible?

You lean forward, raising a hand to trace over the cracks to confirm their existence --

But you barely have a second before the glass shatters into your face and a blur of blue snatches the collar of your shirt with an iron grip. The shock confirms itself too late as your eyes slip down to look at what held you forward.

A blue sleeve-clad, skeletal hand.

You were about to blubber in confusion and disbelief when a chilling voice full of malice cuts through it all.

“ t h e n  c o m e  o n _i n_ , p a l. “

And then you’re dragged into the screen of your laptop with a brutal force, forehead briefly slamming into the edge where the camera sat.

_Black._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As promised, here's the next chapter! It was originally all in one in chapter with Ch. 2 but I felt it'd be more dramatic if it were separated this way! Like always, reviews are appreciated but not required \o/
> 
> I would like to say, as a small PSA, that there will be no formal upload schedule. I do have the entire story planned out and Ch. 4 started but I will be writing/uploading when ever I'm feeling able to. I'll be on and off, so I'm really sorry about that! I hope you guys don't mind. Otherwise, I'm coming up with some oneshots and fics for Transformers IDW, Red VS Blue, and My Hero Academia. So if you like any of those, look forward to them o7
> 
> Thanks for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> I know it's short, but it's exactly how I wanted to end it. I promise that the next chapter will quite a bit longer! Thanks for reading, I really appreciate it! This is my first time posting on AO3, so feel free to let me know what you think. All reviews are appreciated!
> 
> I have this story fully plotted out and hope to finish it by August 2017. I probably won't have a set update schedule, but I will try to at least get one chapter up every two weeks or so.


End file.
